Orangutan trade, confiscations, and lack of prosecutions in Indonesia

Nijman, Vincent

doi:10.1002/ajp.22652

Cited by 35 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Ineffective enforcement of existing laws is frequently regarded as a major barrier towards achieving conservation and restoration efforts in Indonesia, including in relation to enforcement of (protected) area boundaries and prevention of illegal activities such as illegal logging within these (Curran et al, ; Enrici & Hubacek, ; Nellemann, Miles, Kaltenborn, Virtue, & Ahlenius, ), fire use and management (Nurhidayah & Djalante, ; Varkkey, ), wildlife killing (Meijaard et al, ) and trade (Freund, Rahman, & Knott, ; Nijman, ), plus bypassing of laws stipulating that forests in concessions are permanent by re‐zoning as concessions for plantation development (Gaveau, Sloan, et al, ). For example, Indonesia's Government Regulation (PP No.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

et al. 2019

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Tropical forests and peatlands provide important ecological, climate and socio‐economic benefits from the local to the global scale. However, these ecosystems and their associated benefits are threatened by anthropogenic activities, including agricultural conversion, timber harvesting, peatland drainage and associated fire. Here, we identify key challenges, and provide potential solutions and future directions to meet forest and peatland conservation and restoration goals in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Kalimantan. Through a round‐table, dual‐language workshop discussion and literature evaluation, we recognized 59 political, economic, legal, social, logistical and research challenges, for which five key underlying factors were identified. These challenges relate to the 3Rs adopted by the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency (Rewetting, Revegetation and Revitalization), plus a fourth R that we suggest is essential to incorporate into (peatland) conservation planning: Reducing Fires. Our analysis suggests that (a) all challenges have potential for impact on activities under all 4Rs, and many are inter‐dependent and mutually reinforcing, implying that narrowly focused solutions are likely to carry a higher risk of failure; (b) addressing challenges relating to Rewetting and Reducing Fire is critical for achieving goals in all 4Rs, as is considering the local socio‐political situation and acquiring local government and community support; and (c) the suite of challenges faced, and thus conservation interventions required to address these, will be unique to each project, depending on its goals and prevailing local environmental, social and political conditions. With this in mind, we propose an eight‐step adaptive management framework, which could support projects in both Indonesia and other tropical areas to identify and overcome their specific conservation and restoration challenges. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

et al. 2019

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“…The results support the hypothesis that orangutan poaching is largely opportunistic. Nijman (), in a comment on Freund et al (), notes that the findings from Freund et al (), based on two districts in Kalimantan, are consistent with reports on the orangutan pet trade conducted at the national scale for Indonesia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Multidisciplinary studies of wildlife trade in primates: Challenges and priorities

Blair

Lê

Sterling

2017

American J Primatol

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Wildlife trade is increasingly recognized as an unsustainable threat to primate populations and informing its management is a growing focus and application of primatological research. However, management policies based on ecological research alone cannot address complex socioeconomic or cultural contexts as drivers of wildlife trade. Multidisciplinary research is required to understand trade complexity and identify sustainable management strategies. Here, we define multidisciplinary research as research that combines more than one academic discipline, and highlight how the articles in this issue combine methods and approaches to fill key gaps and offer a more comprehensive understanding of underlying drivers of wildlife trade including consumer demand, enforcement patterns, source population status, and accessibility of targeted species. These articles also focus on how these drivers interact at different scales, how trade patterns relate to ethics, and the potential effectiveness of different policy interventions in reducing wildlife trade. We propose priorities for future research on primate trade including expanding from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary research questions and approaches co-created by research teams that integrate across different disciplines such as cultural anthropology, ecology, economics, and public policy. We also discuss challenges that limit the integration of information across disciplines to meet these priorities.

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“…Few orangutan-related crimes perpetrated in Kalimantan were investigated, prosecuted or convicted during the study period. Indonesia did not make any convictions based solely on illegal orangutan possession between 2007 and 2017, although one person was convicted for local trade of a Bornean orangutan (Freund et al 2017;Nijman 2017;Karokaro and Hanafiah 2019). Indonesia made six successful convictions of orangutan-related crime between 2007 and 2017, a conviction rate of less than 0.6% for all reported criminal activities during the study period.…”

Section: Law Enforcementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vast majority of illegal actions against orangutans in range countries likely go unremarked by authorities. The apparent modus operandi of both the government and rescue centers of focusing on rescue without accompanying investigation and prosecution of law-breaking has been identified by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and wildlife crime researchers as a systemic failure (CITES/GRASP 2006;Nijman 2017). Orangutan killing rates continue to be high, as most of the animals coming into rescue centers are in some way associated with killing (i.e.…”

Section: Enforcement Of Orangutan Protection Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of Bornean orangutans, possibilities for wellmanaged releases that comply with IUCN reintroduction guidelines are constrained by the sheer number of orangutans in captive care, coupled with the limited available habitats with absent or sufficiently low resident wild orangutan populations that can be adequate protected from poaching and land clearing (CITES/GRASP 2006;Russon 2009). Together with the apparent feedback cycle that encourages turnover of pet orangutans to rescue facilities without a connection to increased deterrence of illegal orangutan harm, killing, and possession (Nijman 2017;Karokaro and Hanafiah 2019), this underscores that rescue and reintroduction should not be seen as the primary intervention to secure long-term viability of P. pygmaeus. At best, it should be viewed as a tool to provide a chance for a relatively small number of psychologically, behaviorally and physically suitable individuals to be readapted to semi-wild or wild conditions of life.…”

Section: The Role Of Rescue Rehabilitation and Reintroductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Envisioning a future for Bornean orangutans: Conservation impacts of action plan implementation and recommendations for improved population outcomes

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Sherman J, Ancrenaz M, Voigt M, Oram F, Santika T, Wich S, Meijaard E. 2020. Envisioning a future for Bornean orangutans: Conservation impacts of action plan implementation and recommendations for improved population outcomes. Biodiversitas 21: 465-477. Populations of the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) are declining despite more than 10 years of conservation action plan implementation. Here we analyzed the impacts on species' population and habitat from orangutan conservation strategies implemented between 2007 and 2017. We also assessed data on investments into orangutan conservation, orangutan population trends and landcover change in orangutan range between 2007 and 2017. Diverse strategies addressed the range of threats to orangutans but were not implemented at scales that impacted species’ level populations and habitats. Since 2007 orangutan populations and forests across orangutan range have declined, with orangutan killing and deforestation as the major drivers of loss. Protected areas have increased since 2007, notably in Malaysian range states and in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. However, 80% or tens of thousands of orangutans live outside protected areas in Kalimantan alone. Our results underscore scientific findings that have demonstrated this species’ resiliency and modified previous understanding of their habitat use. Orangutans are regularly found using agriculture landscapes (acacia, oil palm, and timber plantations), and exploited forests. This plasticity must be considered to design more effective orangutan conservation strategies. We need to revise the notion of “orangutan habitat” to extend beyond forests alone, incorporating all landscapes where P. pygmaeus can be found. Orangutans cannot survive in exclusively monoculture production areas; they need some natural forest to fulfill their ecological requirements. However, individuals surviving in isolated forest patches or mosaic landscapes play an important role in sustaining the long-term viability of the local metapopulation through provision of crucial genetic, reproductive and socioecological connectivity. Our findings suggest removing these individuals through translocations weakens overall metapopulation health. All necessary efforts must be made to maintain individuals in isolated forest patches or mosaic landscapes in order to support healthy metapopulations. Improved orangutan population outcomes will require addressing habitat connectivity at the landscape level, incorporating both non-forested and anthropogenically modified areas, and developing efficient management strategies for human and orangutan co-existence within these multiple-use landscapes.

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Orangutan trade, confiscations, and lack of prosecutions in Indonesia

Cited by 35 publications

References 13 publications

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

Multidisciplinary studies of wildlife trade in primates: Challenges and priorities

Envisioning a future for Bornean orangutans: Conservation impacts of action plan implementation and recommendations for improved population outcomes

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